Analyst: iPhones flying off shelves at 95 per store per day

Gene Munster ups his estimate of iPhone sales this quarter to 4.47 million …

Customers still wait in line—much
shorter than those in the first few
weeks—to buy an iPhone 3G.
Photo by Adam Turetzky.

The latest report from Piper Jaffray analyst and well-known Apple prognosticator Gene Munster estimates that Apple is averaging sales of 95 iPhones per day for each of its 188 retail locations throughout the US. The estimate is based on checks on sales at Apple Stores over the last two weeks as well as Apple's claim of 1 million units sold over the first weekend.

All told, Munster estimates that Apple will move a total of 4.47 million iPhones this quarter, including sales from US Apple Stores, AT&T stores, and international sales. However, his estimate doesn't take in to account the additional 21 countries that will launch the iPhone 3G on August 22, nor does it include sales from the recent deal with Best Buy. UBS analyst Maynard Um doesn't think Best Buy stores will have much impact on Apple's bottom line, but having an additional 970 retail locations stocking iPhones will put the device in front of a lot more consumers. That should certainly help numbers some; Um's conservative estimate predicts each store only moving about two to three iPhones a day, but that could still add an additional quarter million units per quarter.

Despite having launched over a month ago, people are still lining up to buy iPhones in Apple's busiest stores, and Um believes the deal with Best Buy means Apple is ramping up production nicely. Though 10 million phones—Steve Jobs stated goal for 2008—barely scratches the surface of sales of mobile handset makers like Nokia or Samsung, it's still significant considering Apple only makes essentially one high-end, relatively pricey model. In the last month, I have seen iPhones become as ubiquitous on CTA buses and trains as MacBooks are in area coffee shops. This kind of volume may be hard to sustain, but I'm willing to predict that the iPhone will be the hot gift to give this December.